


Paradise by the Dashboard Light

by bookplayer



Category: Baby-Sitters Club - Ann M. Martin
Genre: Coming Out, F/F, Mild Language, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-29
Updated: 2011-12-29
Packaged: 2017-10-28 09:31:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/306442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bookplayer/pseuds/bookplayer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Abby has never been the best at thinking ahead, so for this talent show she's going where the song takes her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Paradise by the Dashboard Light

**Author's Note:**

  * For [imamaryanne](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=imamaryanne).



> The song in this fic is Paradise by the Dashboard Light, originally preformed by Meat Loaf, written by Jim Steinman. You can check it out on YouTube [here.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMQzfncqOQc)

Go big or go home, that's what I always say. So when I came out of the closet in my senior year it was on the high school stage, in front of the whole school and my family. Of course, it was a talent show to raise money for the Gay Stright Alliance. What better venue?

Kristy was the president of the Gay Straight Alliance. She came out in 10th grade, and of course she had a plan for it. She told her family and friends first, and let other people know in some sort of logical order. But that's Kristy, and this is me.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, Kristy Thomas and me, Abby Stevenson, singing "Paradise by the Dashboard Light".

 

“ _I remember every little thing  
As if it happened only yesterday  
Parking by the lake  
And there was not another car in sight  
And I never had a girl  
Looking any better than you did  
And all the kids at school  
They were wishing they were me that night”_

I sang, then I pulled Kristy close for the second verse. I wasn't the best singer in the world. In fact, the only thing you could really say about my voice was that it's better then Kristy's, which wasn't going to give a lot of comfort to our poor audience.

That's why we were hamming it up. Okay, that's why she was hamming it up. Hamming it up is pretty much what I always do. (I'm Jewish, so I have to be my own ham.) The song, it has this kind of 1950's feel, and it's about a guy trying to get a girl to sleep with him. So we dug into the costumes from when the school did Grease last year. I was wearing blue jeans and a leather jacket, and my hair was up in a twist on the back of my head. Kristy, strictly for the good of the GSA, got stuck with the blouse and poodle skirt. And saddle shoes, and a big pink scarf around her ponytail. It was hilarious, and the expression she had the first time she put it on was even better.

So as soon as the kids saw us they laughed, which just made me really sell it. I went all out, playing up the horny teenager angle, making faces like the ones guys made when they were trying to convince me that they'd die if I didn't touch them.

I don't know how much of it was acting. Maybe it was method acting. I  _was_  the horny teenager.

 Because over the last month or so I'd fallen in love with Kristy Thomas. So when I pulled her to me and sang:

“ _And now our bodies are oh so close and tight  
It never felt so good, never felt so right  
And we're glowing like the metal on the edge of a knife  
Glowing like the metal on the edge of a knife  
Come on, hold on tight!”_

. . . it was true.

She was perfect for me. I loved everything about her, the t-shirt tan lines she had all summer, and playing the Kristy sweater-and-turtleneck lotto in the winter. (Before I left the house I picked two colors. If the turtleneck or sweater was one of them, it was half a point. If the turtleneck was one and the sweater was the other, it was a point, and if her scrunchie matched one it was a double points day.) I loved the little glare she got when I made a really bad joke, and the almost smile when I made one that wasn't quite as bad, and her laugh on the rare occasion I made a good one. Okay, so maybe I had a really weird sense of romance, but the point is that she was perfect for my weird sense of romance.

But I hadn't told her. We were friends, and Kristy was big on keeping her friends who were girls separate from her girlfriends. I pretty sure that was mostly for Mary Anne, so that she didn't think Kristy might hit on her, but it meant that the line between friend and girlfriend wasn't so much a line as it was the Grand Canyon.

So the most I had been able to do was look into her deep brown eyes while we sang,

“ _Though it's cold and lonely in the deep dark night  
I can see paradise by the dashboard light”_

The next part was hers. She sang,

“ _Ain't no doubt about it  
We were doubly blessed  
Cause we were barely seventeen  
And we were barely dressed_

 _Ain't no doubt about it  
Baby got to go and shout it  
Ain't no doubt about it  
We were doubly blessed_

 _Cause we were barely seventeen  
And we were barely dressed”_

Maybe she wasn't on key, exactly, but she was on the doormat that the key was under. Besides, I'd convinced her that if she sang it like she was having an orgasm right there, people would laugh at that rather then her singing.

And she was selling it, and the audience laughed. But I was staring at the look of passion on her face. Kristy was pretty up tight, most of the time. She joked and had fun, but it was always in this really controlled way. I had decided that when she let go, it was probably a force of nature. I wanted to be in the middle of Hurricane Kristy like a weather reporter, holding on for dear life.

I nearly missed my cue when it was my turn to sing.

“ _Baby doncha hear my heart  
You got it drowning out the radio  
I've been waiting so long  
For you to come along and have some fun_

 _And I gotta let ya know  
No you're never gonna regret it  
So open up your eyes I got a big surprise  
It'll feel all right  
Well I wanna make your motor run”_

When I sang the last lines, I pretended to unzip my fly with my back to the auidence, and Kristy made a face that got a huge laugh.

We got through the chorus, until I sang,

“ _We're gonna go all the way tonight  
We're gonna go all the way  
An tonight's the night...”_

. . . then I decided what I had to do. The next part was what I called the porn part. The music was really cheesy, with this recording of a radio announcer calling the make out session like a ballgame. We were supposed to turn so the audience couldn't see what we were doing, and pretend to make out.

I had a better idea. I kissed her, right there, in front of the audience. Not one of of those gentle, waking-sleeping-beauty kisses, either. One of those let's-see-how-far-into-your-mouth-I-can-get-my-tongue kisses.

My eyes were opened, because I thought she might take a swing at me. Her eyes opened wide in surprise, but she didn't pull away. I closed my eyes and ran my hands over her back, and she relaxed and kissed me back, and we just made out there for a minute on stage with cheesy 70's funk music playing. It was heaven.

I almost forgot about her next part, so I was startled when she broke the kiss and pushed me away, until she sang,

“ _Stop right there!  
I gotta know right now!  
Before we go any further--!_

 _Do you love me?  
Will you love me forever?  
Do you need me?  
Will you never leave me?  
Will you make me so happy for the rest of my life?  
Will you take me away and will you make me your wife?_

 _I gotta know right now  
Before we go any further  
Do you love me?  
Will you love me forever?”_

I knew it was just the next part of the song, but there was a pretty obvious question in her eyes. That question was _“What in the hell do you think you're doing, Abby?”_

The answer was, I had no idea. My mom and sister just saw that. The guy I was supposed to go out with next Saturday saw it. I had no idea if Kristy even wanted to kiss me. I've always been good at not thinking things through, but this was pro-level.

I was kind of relieved that my next part was,

“ _Let me sleep on it  
Baby, baby let me sleep on it  
Let me sleep on it  
And I'll give you my answer in the morning.”_

Then she smirked at me. We did those parts back and forth for a few verses, while I was supposed to be trying to convince her to sleep with me, and she was supposed to be taunting me. And she went all out with the taunting, her hand slid up the inside of my leg and and she nibbled on my ear while I sang my part. I had no problem seeming desperate at that point.

By the time we got to the part that went,

“ _Will you love me forever?”_

“ _Let me sleep on it!”_

“ _Will you love me forever!”_

I was more then ready for my next part,

“ _I couldn't take it any longer  
Lord I was crazed  
And when the feeling came upon me  
Like a tidal wave  
I started swearing to my god and on my mother's grave  
That I would love you to the end of time  
I swore that I would love you to the end of time!”_

It was time for the big comic finish. I stood up and took her hand, and sang straight to the audience,

“ _So now I'm praying for the end of time  
To hurry up and arrive  
Cause if I gotta spend another minute with you  
I don't think that I can really survive  
I'll never break my promise or forget my vow  
But God only knows what I can do right now  
I'm praying for the end of time  
It's all that I can do  
Praying for the end of time, so I can end my time with you!”_

The audience laughed, and clapped, and we took our bows. I was grinning, I'd done great!

Then Kristy practically dragged me off stage. As soon as we were in the wings, she hit me hard on the arm. “What was that?”

“I think I just came out. And hit on you at the same time. I'm not sure though, we can take a poll and see what the audience thinks.”

She was staring at me with her mouth open, then she said, “We rehearsed this a million times. You couldn't have done that at my house?”

“Surprise?”

“I could kill you!”

I grinned, “Kiss me again, instead.”

And she did. And then she kissed me again that night for much longer, and a few weeks later I felt the full force of Hurricane Kristy in the back seat of her SUV. Paradise by the dashboard light, indeed.


End file.
